If you family are applying for permanent residence, then they will be official residents as soon as they activate their visa upon arrival.

Whether or not you and your partner could apply for permanent residency would depend a lot on age, qualifications, work experience and what type of work you are in. If you have enough work experience in certains fields, then you don't necessarily need to be qualified.

You might want to try the NZIS points calculator:

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/pointsindicator

Fill that in and it will give you an estimate of the points you could score.